Reggae Girlz head coach Lorne Donaldson says his team simply wasn’t good enough in their 0-5 hammering by defending World Champions the USA in the Concacaf Women’s Championship on Thursday.
The Americans sprinted out to a 2-0 lead through goals from Sophia Smith in the fifth and eighth minutes before adding three more goals in the second half through Rose Lavelle (59th), Kristie Mewis (83rd) and Trinity Rodman (86th) to complete the 5-0 demolition at the Estadio BBVA Bancomer.
“I didn’t think it’d take 10 minutes. We gave up two goals in six minutes and you’re not going to play the World Champs and expect anything out of the game playing the way we did. We weren’t good,” Donaldson said in a post-match press conference.
“The Americans are the best team in the world. When you play the champions at the top of their game, bad things will happen if you don’t play well and we didn’t,” Donaldson added.
The Reggae Girlz are now third in Group A with three points after two games with their third and final preliminary encounter coming against Haiti on Monday.
The Haitians also have three points and will go into that game with supreme confidence after a convincing 3-0 win over Mexico on Thursday.
The winner of Monday’s match will join the USA as automatic qualifiers to next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand while the loser will most likely have to book their spot through an inter-continental playoff.
“I think we’re going to be fine and ready,” Donaldson said.